Review – Heir of Danger by Alix Rickloff

Publisher: Pocket Books
Publish Date: Out now
How I got this book: From the publisher

A man too dangerous to live. . .
After seven years outrunning enemies, friends, and his own soul-crushing memories, Brendan Douglas is risking everything on a desperate mission. He has vowed to thwart the evil mage Máelodor’s plans to unlock the past and reshape the future . . . unfortunately the precious treasure that is the key to success lies with a woman he jilted seven years before.
A woman determined to find a life of her own. . .
When her golden-eyed childhood hero abandoned her at the altar—disappearing in a storm of magic and mayhem, destruction, betrayal, and disaster—Elisabeth Fitzgerald struggled to overcome her humiliation and loss. Finally, she has found a new fiancé and a comfortable future. Then, the one man she thought she would never see again appears—among her wedding guests. Brendan Douglas has returned.
An inescapable destiny. . .
It’s not just that Elisabeth is promised to another; Brendan knows he is drawing her into terrible danger. But he cannot resist the bewitching, brave, wholly unexpected woman his youthful nemesis has become. He promised to sacrifice everything, but is he willing to sacrifice Elisabeth?
This blurb came from the author’s website here.

Heir Of Danger is the conclusion of Alix Rickloff’s Heirs of Kilronan trilogy. Despite my OCD tendency that drives me to start every series with the first book, I went ahead and started with this one because I really liked the blurb and it reminded me of the epic fantasy romances I used to read. I highly recommend that you read the first two books before picking this one up. You can follow the action and infer some of what happened previously but there is a lot of back-story and world building that I think would add to the reader’s understanding and enjoyment. I say this because I was somewhat lost in the beginning specifically with some of the non-English pronouns used to describe different groups of people. I actually looked in the back hoping to find a glossary. I could also tell that some of the characters had some painful past history with each other that I would have enjoyed knowing.

Even though it took me a little bit to grasp enough of the backstory to really get into why Brendan was risking his life, I was immediately sucked in with my introduction of the villain Maelodor, and Elisabeth’s first encounter with Brendan. I think that was when Elisabeth captivated me as a character. Initially I wasn’t sure that she would be a strong enough character to help make her own destiny or if she was just going to be swept along by events. I was very pleased to see that Elisabeth refused to just accept what happened and continued fighting for information and to make her own decisions. Her strength of will was rather important as the book continued.

Brendan was a tortured hero in more ways then one if I have ever read one. It seemed like everything he tried to make up for in past events, it just made things worse. Yet I could also see how he made it worse on himself so he certainly wasn’t blameless. It was fascinating to watch Brendan as the story unfolded and see his struggle to complete what he saw as his redemption, sacrificing himself along the way, without dragging anyone else he cared about down with him.

This novel had revenge, betrayal, kidnappings, death one of which I think came too easily, love, magic, visions, and things that really weren’t quite as they seemed. Given the sheer amount of activity in this last book I had to wonder if the first two moved at a slower pace and built everything up to this or if Ms Rickloff kept things moving quickly throughout the entire series.

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About E_booklover

E is addicted to books. She discovered at an early age that not only were they her transport to far off worlds, adventures, and exotic cultures, but that she ran into far fewer objects if she walked while reading then if she wasn't reading. She reads across several genres, such as: romance, western,mystery, SF/F and its derivatives. She isn't too picky except for good characterization, settings she can imagine, and a story that flows logically... umm so ok -- she wants a good story. Have any to recommend?

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